London Screenwriter's Festival is nearly here and cyberspace (in some circles) is full of NETWORKING - how do you do it, what is the etiquette, how do you not do it, what you are aiming for.... HOW DO I MAKE FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE WHO'LL GIVE ME A JOB!!!????????????

Maybe I have an unhealthy disrespect for the world of film/tv? Maybe it is totally different from everything else people have ever encountered in their 'real' lives? In my day job - I get IT contract work word of mouth. How? I have a track record and I've made lots of friends over the years. I do the job, very few complaints, and I work to keep these friendships, usually in a pub. 
They recommended me and the pool grows. 

That is networking - so why is everyone so stressy about Media (darling)? 
Fair enough, if you're not a spring chicken, you can't start as a runner and make contacts to give you work in future. 
As an old outsider? Using rules from the abnormal world (none of which apparently count), to switch careers:

• Bash away until you can produce good, consistent work
  
• Have a laugh and get to know people & hopefully be pleasant enough that some of them like you - I have worked with complete twats and I would not touch a project that has anything to do with them. And I would tell everyone what a shite they are.
  

Job done.
The only problem I can see for old gits changing career is that it takes a hell of a long time to get good enough to be worth employing. It's possible that by you time you (we... one - whoever) is decent and consistent, we'll be too fossilized to leverage that. That's our fault for starting late. 

Talking with the cast, the scope of their input ranges from creation of a character, to play it like I tell you, but they each bring a different outcome based on their individuality… and that’s before the cutting and editing.

Stunning experience to see a 2-D piece of writing take on substance and appear before me, I could really get addicted to that. Even more impressive though is seeing the huge amount of effort from everyone involved. It’s like unpacking a bit bouncy castle, inflating it and slowly seeing turrets and moats and flying banners all coming to life – that I didn’t even know were there! 
I understand that novelists get to create everything themselves, and to own that entire process must be intoxicating, but it’s so exciting to set this up and set it free, and see it evolve. A bit like having a baby!
What a fantastic experience – I can’t wait for the next one!